For journalists and creators
ThinkMatch Press Kit
Facts, working links, story ideas, and downloadable assets for covering an AI product designed to help people meet offline.
The short version
ThinkMatch is a free social coordination product from Software995. It uses AI to help people decide whom to approach, understand what they have in common, and begin a conversation at a real-world event. It is not a dating app or an endless profile feed: the technology prepares people for an introduction and then gets out of the way.
The editorial case
Why ThinkMatch is different
Most social and event products optimize one of two things: finding an event or keeping people engaged with profiles and content. ThinkMatch is designed around the moment between those activities—after someone decides where to go but before they know whom to approach.
Why it is newsworthy
ThinkMatch is a counterexample to the dominant consumer-AI model. Instead of using AI to replace human interaction or hold attention on a screen, it applies AI to prepare people for face-to-face conversation and then recedes from the experience.
- A timely AI question: Can technology be judged by the human interaction it enables rather than the engagement it captures?
- A concrete response to loneliness: ThinkMatch addresses a specific barrier to participation—the uncertainty and awkwardness of entering a gathering without knowing anyone.
- A local story in every market: City discovery, citywide meeting pages, and local pickleball, tennis, hiking, and biking pages give reporters examples their readers can open and evaluate directly.
- An unusual distribution strategy: More than 500,000 venue-linked pages create infrastructure around places where people already gather instead of requiring communities to begin from an empty social network.
- A founder story spanning generations of information technology: Scott Rothstein’s work runs from early PDF search and clustering, through Adobe and more than 60 million Pdf995 downloads, to machine learning and AI-assisted real-world introductions.
- A product journalists can test: ThinkMatch is available on the web, iPhone, and Android, and its local pages, host tools, questions, matching, chat, and video workflows can be examined directly.
An enhancement layer for existing events
ThinkMatch can make an event more social without replacing the event platform
Ticketing and event-discovery services are good at answering “What is happening?” and “How do I register?” Conference agendas answer “Which session should I attend?” ThinkMatch addresses the next question: “Who should I meet when I get there?”
Examples
- Meetups: Add questions and introductions around an existing public Meetup event while directing registration and official details back to the organizer.
- Ticketed concerts, sports, theatre, and entertainment: Build a social experience around a major event so attendees can find others who plan to be there. ThinkMatch does not sell or validate tickets.
- Conferences: Import supported public agendas and schedules—including individual sessions—so attendees can connect around a specific talk, workshop, or panel.
- Campuses and community calendars: Turn an existing public listing into a starting point for introductions without taking ownership of the underlying event.
- Private and independently hosted events: Use the same tools for dinners, parties, reunions, networking gatherings, clubs, and community events created directly in ThinkMatch.
ThinkMatch is an independent enhancement layer. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meetup or Ticketmaster, and it does not replace an event organizer, registration provider, ticket seller, or official schedule.
Key facts
- Available on the web, iPhone, and Android.
- Free for participants.
- Supports public gatherings, private events, campuses, conventions, clubs, restaurants, and other hosts.
- Includes venue-linked event and discovery pages for more than 500,000 locations, mostly in the United States.
- Includes city pages for finding pickleball, tennis, hiking, and biking partners.
- Users can message and video chat inside ThinkMatch before sharing personal contact details.
Possible story angles
- Can AI reduce loneliness by moving interactions offline instead of maximizing screen time?
- Using shared interests and conversation prompts to reduce the awkwardness of arriving alone.
- Helping newcomers find local activity partners and community gatherings.
- Giving hosts a social layer for introductions before and during real-world events.
- Privacy-preserving communication before people exchange personal contact information.
How it works
- A participant joins an event or activity community and answers questions chosen for that gathering.
- ThinkMatch uses the answers to suggest people who may enjoy meeting and explains the common ground.
- Conversation starters help with the first approach; built-in messaging and video can help people connect beforehand.
- The intended outcome is an in-person conversation—not more time spent browsing profiles.
Reporting resources
Founder and company
Scott Rothstein is the founder of Software995 and ThinkMatch. Software995 Inc. is based in Palo Alto, California.
For interviews, demonstrations, screenshots, fact checks, or additional background:
[email protected]
650-468-4609
ThinkMatch history
Scott Rothstein began developing ThinkMatch to address a familiar social problem: entering a gathering without knowing whom to approach or what to say. The product grew from event creation, questions, matching, and invitations into a broader system for discovery and communication before people meet.
About Scott Rothstein
Scott Rothstein is a software entrepreneur, computer scientist, and the founder of Software995 and ThinkMatch. His work has spanned document publishing, information retrieval, search and clustering, multivariate analysis, machine learning, mobile applications, and AI-assisted products.
Rothstein founded Squashware Technologies in New York in 1993, developing PDF summarization and categorization technology based on information theory and multivariate analysis. After selling Squashware to Adobe Systems in 1997, he joined Adobe’s Advanced Technology Group as a senior computer scientist. There he further developed search and clustering technology, integrated it into Acrobat Capture, and worked with major early search services—including AltaVista, Excite, Inktomi, Google, and AOL—to make tens of millions of PDF pages searchable on the web.
In 2002, Rothstein founded Software995 in Palo Alto. He developed Pdf995 and has continued to develop and support the company’s document, search, mobile, machine-learning, and AI products. His later work includes It’s The Weather, Breathe Easy AQI Forecaster, SearchWithin, and ThinkMatch.
Rothstein earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College in 1984, where he participated in varsity crew. His technical work includes PyTorch, C++, C#, Java, Python, and multivariate analysis.
About Software995
Scott Rothstein founded Software995 in Palo Alto in 2002. The company is best known for the Pdf995 Suite—Pdf995, PdfEdit995, and Signature995—and the broader Software995 Toolset.
According to Rothstein’s professional history, Pdf995 has been downloaded more than 60 million times. Software995 has supported large enterprise deployments, including installations serving 160,000 Ford users and 180,000 Shell users.
The company’s products span PDF creation and publishing, document conversion, security, search, backup, FTP, imaging, mobile forecasting, machine learning, and AI. Its products include SearchWithin, which introduced OpenAI-assisted querying of PDF collections in 2023; the Breathe Easy air-quality forecasting app; It’s The Weather; and ThinkMatch.
ThinkMatch extends Software995’s history of information analysis into real-world social connection, using event-specific answers to help people find relevant introductions, groups, and conversation starters.
Software995 product portfolio
Pdf995 features and usage
Pdf995 release archive
Copy-ready descriptions
ThinkMatch boilerplate
ThinkMatch is a free social coordination platform from Software995 that uses event-specific questions to support more thoughtful introductions, compatible groups, conversation starters, private chat, and optional video before people meet in person. Available on the web, iPhone, and Android, ThinkMatch supports public and private events, local activities, campuses, conventions, community gatherings, and venue-linked discovery across more than 500,000 locations, mostly in the United States.
Software995 boilerplate
Founded by Scott Rothstein in Palo Alto in 2002, Software995 is the developer of the Pdf995 Suite and Software995 Toolset. Pdf995 has been downloaded more than 60 million times, and the company has supported enterprise deployments with hundreds of thousands of users. Software995 applies its experience in document publishing, information retrieval, machine learning, and AI to products including SearchWithin and ThinkMatch.
Scott Rothstein short biography
Scott Rothstein is a software entrepreneur and computer scientist whose work spans document publishing, search, clustering, multivariate analysis, machine learning, and AI. He founded Squashware Technologies, sold it to Adobe Systems in 1997, and subsequently worked as a senior computer scientist in Adobe’s Advanced Technology Group. Rothstein founded Software995 in Palo Alto in 2002 and later created ThinkMatch, an AI-assisted platform designed to make real-world introductions easier.
Frequently asked questions
Is ThinkMatch a dating app?
No. ThinkMatch can support many types of gatherings, but its core purpose is helping people prepare for real-world introductions rather than browse an endless dating feed.
How does ThinkMatch use AI?
ThinkMatch uses answers to event-specific questions to support suggested introductions, compatible groups, explanations of shared interests, and conversation starters.
Does it replace an event organizer or ticket provider?
No. ThinkMatch adds a discovery and social-connection layer around an event or gathering. Registration, admission, and official schedules remain with their original providers.
Is it free?
Yes. ThinkMatch is free for hosts and participants.
Must users install an app?
No. ThinkMatch works on the web and also offers iPhone and Android apps.
Do users have to share personal contact details?
No. Messaging and optional video can remain inside ThinkMatch, and users decide what personal information to share.
Official media assets
Please identify the product as “ThinkMatch.” Assets may be cropped for editorial use but should not be altered in a way that changes the product or company identity.